As Splitgate 2 prepares to release for a second time, design director says the team has handled "a challenging situation with honesty, humility, and grit"

1047 Games is preparing to undo the un-launching of its portal-hopping arena shooter Splitgate 2, and the game's design director says the studio handled the controversies around overpriced microtransactions, free-to-play grind, and divisive hats with "honesty, humility, and grit."

Splitgate 2's design director as of this summer, Josh Watson, recently penned a letter posted to social media ahead of the free-to-play shooter's relaunch, introducing himself to the community as a lifelong Halo buff, Unreal Tournament modder, and former Rocket League lead.

"So when I discovered Splitgate in 2021, it hit me in a very specific way," Watson writes. "It felt like the spirit of that era brought forward into something new. A team taking a real swing at a genre the industry had mostly moved on from. I remember feeling grateful that someone was still fighting to keep that style of game alive."

Watson goes on to explain that he actually joined the team after Splitgate 2's initial beta, "at a time when joining the project might have seemed like an unusual move from the outside," but he saw "a foundation worth fighting for" in the game itself and a community-oriented philosophy in the devs at 1047 Games.

"I have watched them handle a challenging situation with honesty, humility, and grit," he added, which might give some players pause. "Everyone who has worked on this game cares deeply about doing right by our players. They have worked their asses off and have built something full of heart. I hope the entire team, past and present, is incredibly proud of what they’ve accomplished. I certainly am."

Splitgate 2 first launched earlier this summer, but the aforementioned issues, plus layoffs and discourse over the CEO's 'Make FPS Great Again' hat, prompted 1047 Games to push it back into beta, where the studio's been slowly rolling out tweaks and updates. ( I haven't kept up to date with it, but I hope the ability to randomly fart is intact.)

Splitgate 2 will now relaunch sometime later this month.

Check out what we thought of the shooter at launch in our Splitgate 2 review or see what else there is to play in our picks of the best FPS games . (Spoilers: Number one is the canonically correct choice in every timeline.)